#just delete entire character arc going for 2 seasons??

[sarka-stically]

wow so ofmd finale is terrible? not just because of THAT thing at the end but genuinely bad tv?

[redacteddoesstuff]

II S2 Ep 17 Spoilers

I'll be talking about what I got right from my previous theory post and some newer ones too.

Theory 1: The contestants aren't gone forever

This didn't happen. However I do think it will. I am one of the people who think there will be an act 3. Mostly because there are a lot of loose ends and plot points that they brought up (even just in this episode).

I am now more sure then ever that this is how their going to bring the contestants back. Or at least it will be an important part.

The fact that they continue to focus on soaps phone kinda proves that to me. Why bring so much attention to something meaningless.

Theory 2 (well not really a theory, more of a question): What about bow and dough?

Bow and dough are indeed created by Mephone. Which also means that Mephone can create soul-like-substitutes. Which is wild.

Theory 3: Mephone didn't know he created the contestants.

I was right with this one! Yippee! Kinda. While he didn't remember creating them, he did assign them personalities and quirks. What Cobs really did here was make Mephone put 2 and 2 together.

What I believe happened was after Mephone escaped he was like "Time to start a reality show! Wait... I need people for that" and his subconscious was like "haha, wait a minute, we already did that" and spawned in the contestants. Seeing as he had an interview with suitcase, a season 2 contestant, we can assume that the rest of season 2 and 3 contestants were all subconsciously spawned in, then held an interview with Mephone.

The picture below is just to highlight that even the season 3 contestants where characterized by Mephone.

Also I haven't seen enough people talk about how genuinely awful and disgusting what Cobs did here. It actually makes me kinda ill.

Theory 3: Mephone is part Prime Shimmer

I was also right with this one! I am on a roll! Mephone being a Shimmer just makes sense narrative wise.

Now, onto the theories/observations I have after this episode.

I don't think Mephone knew he could freeze everyone. Besides the fact that he didn't know he created them an therefore wouldn't think that was something that he was capable of, just look at him.

He has no idea what's happening around him. He's far more focused on the season 3 folder then his surroundings.

I also don't think Mephone created the island. He may have terraformed it but I don't believe he can straight up created an entire island.

And like I said earlier, I really don't think that this is the end.

Reason 1: the loose ends/plot points

It feels weird to me if they brought up important information just for it not to be used. Like Bow's tail story/coming back from the dead, Soap's phone, and the Prime Shimmers. Not to mention all the people who would still be there, like Mepad, Bow, Dough, Bot, Baxter, and the Prime Shimmers (and maybe toilet too? But that is a huge maybe in my books). Or even The Unvitational Committee. What do they feel about everything that's happened. What are they gonna do now everyone's gone.

Reason 2: common act structures.

While this is admittedly one of the weaker points, as they're allowed to do whatever they want, I think it's important to bring up. "Act" is a very specific word choice, and most stories follow a three act structure.

Reason 3: The themes.

II has a really prominent theme through the entire show, you don't have to be what others think of you. It can be seen within most character arcs. This episode is kinda the antithesis to that theme. Even the title "Through No Choice of Your Own" highlights that.

Reason 5: Brian said that there will be 2 special guest voice actors and we haven't gotten that yet.

Reason 6: He also specifically said "multi-part." People don't tend to say multi-part for 2 episodes, optioning to say two-parter instead.

Reason 7: Adam deleted his account shortly after he made(?) it. He also died from Mephone X. However this could just be nothing more then a fun way to leave and I'm looking to far into things. I thought it was important to bring up anyway.

Reason 8: General vibes.

While II has had lots of sad moments before, they usually have some kind of happy/bittersweet/hopeful ending. This is just depressing, with little to no upside.

Look man. I'm gonna be honest. This is mostly me sipping copium. I genuinely can't fathom there being no act 3. Like, that's not even an option. This ending is so genuinely horrible (emotionally) it's unreal. I might make another post just about how awful this all is for Mephone specifically. Like, it's the worst possible outcome from him. Anyways, post is ending here. I had some more ideas but I forgot them.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

AGENT TEXAS (RED VS BLUE)

1.) okay so tex is an ai based on the memories this one dickhead dude has of his dead wife, allison. there's also an ai based on the dickhead dude himself, his name's church. all the stuff with the ai's and the different versions of her is kind of confusing to explain but she sort of dies twice- first sacrificing herself for something that has very little narrative weight, and being absorbed into a kind of . monstrous mesh of other ai's (including the original church ai) that then is erased, with basically no mention of tex, it's all about church's death.

then, there's another version of both church and tex born from the original church ai's memories (epsilon-tex and epsilon-church). epsilon-church's arc is basically about learning to move on from his past and let go of tex, because he's kind of obsessed with her and it's preventing him from progressing. so, epsilon-church 'forgets' tex, deleting her for good. tl;dr she dies, again, basically entirely for church's development.

when i was a kid super into rvb i was always really disinterested in tex and looking back it's because er story just.. isn't resolved satisfyingly at all. basically all of her story is hitched so tightly to church's story and development that tex barely gets room to be more than a memory of the director's dead wife- she never gets to move past the circumstances that created her and become her own person entirely divorced from the director or from church- allison died and we never knew anything about her besides that the director god sad about it. beta-tex died unceremoniously and without mention. epsilon-tex died for church's character growth.

quoting church's own words from the show: ""She died in her real life, and that's all the Director ever remembered of her. So now, no matter how tough she is, no matter how hard she fights, she's always going to fail, because that's what she's based on. No matter what she's doing, or what she's trying to accomplish, just when her goal is within her reach, it gets yanked away. Every. Single. Time." and she just never… actually overcomes this. she just dies.

and quoting now-inactive tumblr user epsilontucker from 2015 who put it better than i could: "Tex’s whole life was spent fighting for agency. Freedom from what Omega wanted her to be (O’Malley), what the Director wanted her to be (Allison), what Church wanted her to be (his). Epsilon-Tex wanted to know who she was and why she was and she wanted to dismantle everything Church ever built. Especially because he built it for her.

And this character arc about freedom and agency, about a chance to define herself on her own terms, is resolved by… Church deciding to delete her.

Because everybody always seems to know what’s best for Tex."

this is also to say nothing of the treatment of her character on just, like, an episode-to-episode basis. rvb has a big problem with basically treating "bitch" as a personality trait for female characters, and tex gets some of the worst of it. if you made a drinking game of how often tex gets called a bitch, or a huge bitch, you'd die of alcohol poisoning. also at one point andy the bomb makes a bunch of transmisogynistic jokes at her because she's suppsoedly mannish (she's not masculine or feminine really everybody in this show is a multicolor master chief. she's just good at fighting) and then calls her a dyke. the end

2.) Some background (spoilers): Tex is introduced as a badass mercenary from Project Freelancer, and the ex girlfriend of Church, the main character of the show. It is eventually revealed she and Church are both Aritifical Intelligence programs; Church is an AI copy of the Director of Project Freelancer, and Tex is a copy of the Director's late wife.

Firstly she is straightforwardly the victim of misogynistic "jokes" for the first several seasons. She is called misogynistic slurs, shamed for sleeping with other men besides Church, she cannot work the entertainment stand at the base bc she's female, called lesbophobic and transmysogonistic slurs bc she is a competent soldier, and blackmails another female character out of jealousy bc she is the only other girl in the group.

Even when these jokes go away, and the show transitions from comedy to drama, her writing revolves around the male characters around her. Because she is the personification of the memory of the Director's dead wife, and his perceieved failure to save her, she explicitly, in the text, will always fail at what she sets out to accomplish no matter how strong she is. She wishes to be free of the cycle of being resurrected bc Church can't live without her only to fail and die again, but lacks the agency to end it without Church. Church's arc about learning to let her go ends not with her being free to exist as her own person without him, but with him forgetting her. Since she IS his memory, this ERASES HER FROM EXISTENCE. She literally cannot exist without this guy.

This would all be easier to swallow if she wasn't the ONLY prominent female main character for 8 whole seasons. It's a beautiful story about how grief can fester into anger and a need for control, and how that pushes away the people you love, but it's a story entirely centered around Church's development, in which she is a prop that stops existing when the story is over. I love her but she deserved so much better than she got.

3.) girlboss

KAMALA KHAN (MARVEL COMICS) (CW: Racism)

1.) One of the most prominent brown women in all of comics, beloved by the fan base. Recently killed in a PETER PARKER SPIDERMAN COMIC (despite being much closer with Miles Morales and having basically no relationship with Peter) in what's probably the name of MCU synergy, which nobody wanted (she'll probably be resurrected as a mutant, erasing her unique and interesting history as an Inhuman). She was using her shapeshifting powers again despite having stopped in her solo as she got more confident in her own skin and identity as a Pakistani American girl, died disguised as the very white Mary Jane as a fake out/last minute replacement for killing off MJ. I fucking hate it here. A cheap trick to drive sales. L + Misogyny + racism + are you fucking kidding me

[supercalime]

i thought about adding "(yes, bucktommy kids, i take no criticism)" to my last anon ask but decided to delete it last minute LMAO!

in all honesty, i've thought about buck becoming a dad since season 1 (started watch 911 when it was on season 2, so it's been a few years). idk like season 1 alone just set up so much imo? his intriguing relationship with bobby, the first signs of deeply rooted abandonment issues, his clear want to connect to somebody emotionally (and trying and failing to do so with his hookups, which speaks for his desperation), and how he was soooo incredibly protective of the baby that was stuck in the pipe (and angry af at the teenage mom who did this to her own child)? i knew in that very moment that i'm capital i Intrigued with buck's stance on and search for love and family.

it also kept being highlighted throughout all season. buck saying he loves kids, how he's usually the one shown with child characters (saving them during calls, bonding so deeply with chris, the entire tsunami thing being given to him and not any of the canon parents, playing at the kids' table with the children, doing school assignments and baking and cooking with chris), his own childhood and trauma revolving around his own birth, the famous Baby Box, the adoration for his niece, the sperm donor arc and what that has taught him about parental love and family, how he is often shown to be in a position to teach somebody younger (was instructing albert how to cook; was the one teaching ravi; both instances where he was too harsh but only because he was going Through Shit at the time; also baking and cooking with chris). there is more.

if they canonize that buck doesn't want kids of his own, i'd be fine with that, because i still absolutely love how buck loves kids and how kids love buck, and that'll always be canon! but in my heart, buck will be a dad someday idc. give that man a baby okay he'd be fantastic!

Great analysis anon! It’s true, Buck has a great way with kids and I agree that it would be a great way to see him be a father someday, even if it’s one of those cheesy montages in epilogues of tv shows that show the characters in the last episode ever, with everyone with their happy families.

To know that, only time will tell. As we know, procedurals have a hard time committing to big changes for their characters (specially with love interests and kids), so if buck being a dad (with tommy pls) eventually is in the writers’ mind, I wouldn’t be surprised that we get to have that only in the final episode of the show (or if the actor leaves, the final episode he’s in).

I also agree with you about him maybe not wanting to have kids of his own (if it’s stated in canon in dialogue). But as I see, it definitely wouldn’t be out of character for him to want to have kids.

I do think that even Buck, at this point in his life, is not thinking that ahead as well. Maybe he could have an awakening about fatherhood. I mean, if I may hc for a sec here: we know tommy (I’m obv using bucktommy endgame here because of course) likes kids otherwise Chris wouldn’t have loved him so quickly, so it’s safe to say he would like Jee as well, so I could see in the future buck seeing tommy being cute with Chris or Jee and being like “i want to have that for me with tommy”.

Anyway, I love rambling haha

[soullessjack]

SPN?

1) honestly jody and donna , i know they aren’t entirely canon but both actresses support the idea and that’s good enough for me ^_^

** secondary is jack/harper i LOVE them and we deserved to see more. #letjackfuck2k24

2) rowena and jack!!!! i see their dynamic as an aunt/nephew type thing and I love (almost) every time they’re together (omitting the time jack witch-napped her to bring back Mary). I wish we got to see more of them </3

3) Sam and Amelia. usually i can handle the show’s bad moments as enjoyably bad but season 8 was paint-drying levels of boring. Amelia was a bland nothing-burger of a character and the rest of Sam’s normal guy arc did absolutely nothing for him or the season

4) hmmmmm….. not sure I have one actually 🧐

5) JACK <3 my most special boy in the entire world i love him more than anything ever Even my other special interests and fixations 😭 he’s been deeply important to me for 7 years now and probably will be for the rest of my life!! I self-ship with him and plan on getting several tattoos for him and hopefully I’ll be able to meet Alex again someday :3

6) Lucifer/Nick, hands down. Lucifer stopped being an interesting villain to me around like S7 or so honestly, and every time he got brought back it just felt like such a lazy move from the writers or a painful excuse to keep mark on the payroll

7) something that should’ve happened…very broad question for this show. Destiel should’ve happened, a better finale should’ve happened, some deleted scenes and scripts should’ve happened, Jack being covered in more blood and maybe having a longer lasting ‘villain’ arc should’ve happened …many such cases

8) something that shouldn’t have happened…again, many choices, but to save time I’ll just leave it at Nick’s entire character. besides (see #6) he straight up shouldn’t be alive. Dean shot him in the head with the Colt all the way back in S5 lmao

9) hmmmmm……i think my entire blog is full of rare (if not downright unpopular) opinions, but if I had to choose one that is Extremely rare, I’d go with this one: Dean is one of Jack’s dads. As frustrating as his initial behavior is, he does grow past it, and he puts genuine effort into being a better mentor/father figure to Jack—not only because he does care about them, but also because he literally could not forgive himself for how he acted and wanted to make up for it as much as he could.

obviously they do have a very complicated and rough relationship, but that’s literally every other relationship on this show, and it’s kind of agitating that they aren’t given the same nuance or understanding that the others get—especially when half of the discussions surrounding it can be boiled down to “bad man mean to helpless baby” (which is another thing on its own but ill stop here). I don’t mean this as an excuse or apologia for Dean’s behavior, but when you consider that he’s a severely traumatized person with a relatively small support system and a canon tendency to verbally abuse/emotionally distance himself from people as a coping mechanism (literally what he had a breakdown over in Purgatory) it’s a little easier to understand it.

everyone is quick to talk about how he said “Jack’s not family,” but nobody paid attention to the fact that in the script, he’s mildly horrified at Jack agreeing with him (if you truly meant an insult, wouldn’t you’d want the target to agree?). or that after jack restores the world from chuck’s damage, Dean not only fully expects/wants them to go back to the bunker with them (IE continue living there) but he also literally fantasizes about buying jack a big screen tv and recliners for saving the world. so id love if the fandom ixnayed on the “uncle” shit. ironically the only one of TFW to actually be Jack’s uncle is Cas, biologically

alternatively for a rare opinion: i want jack kline biblically, carnally, horrendously, homosexually, expeditiously, and so on and so forth.

[mdhwrites]

Don't you think it's short selling Sasha and Marcy by saying they aren't major players?

Like it's kinda weird you'd sooner consider the Wartwood citizens to be more major than those two. I mean those guys (like Ivy, Maddie, Croaker, Wally, Toadie, and Felicia) only get like one or two focus episodes per season individually at best and it's not as though they have much of a story arc with them or have as much involvement in the overarching story the same way as Sasha and Marcy do.

Like if you count all the episodes that put Sasha or Marcy in a major role, I'd argue they may actually have more focus episodes than Polly (who appears more than them).

For crying out loud, Matt Braly has outright lumped Sasha and Marcy in as main cast in Tweets with one for season 3B even having him outright state Sasha and Grime are main cast in season 3. Voice director Eden Riegel also lumps Sasha and Marcy's voices as part of the main cast with Anne and the Plantars so they're clearly intended as major players, or at least higher on the prominence scale than the Wartwood citizens.

And it makes me wonder how you would classify characters in other shows that are too prominent to be lumped as simply supporting and nothing more, but also aren't 24/7 main cast.

Owl House has Amity, Willow, Gus, and Hunter (who are kinda similar in prominence with Sasha and Marcy) as not being 24/7 main players like Luz, Eda, King, and Hooty, but also too prominent to be lumped as just supporting and nothing more like the Hexside characters such as Boscha, Skara, Bump, and the Blight Twins.

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic has Starlight, Celestia, Discord, Luna, Trixie, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders as not being 24/7 main players like the Mane 6 + Spike, but too prominent to be lumped as just supporting and nothing more as well.

Star vs the Forces of Evil has Eclipsa, Tom, Moon, Ludo, River, Janna, and Pony Head in that same territory as not being 24/7 main players like Star and Marco, but too prominent to be lumped as just supporting and nothing more.

Steven Universe has Connie, Greg, Peridot, and Lapis in that same territory as not being 24/7 main players like the main 4 Crystal Gems (Steven, Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst), but too prominent to be lumped as just supporting and nothing more.

Sasha and Marcy certainly have way more prominence than the Wartwood citizens and I feel you're kinda underestimating them into being minor supporting and nothing more, ignoring their importance to the show's story.

Well, I deleted this after not wanting to deliberate on the definition before but if this is going to come back each time I say what is my opinion:

I have never called Sasha or Marcy minor supporting characters. I even admitted in my last blog to Sasha being the primary antagonist for 2 seasons, just that her presence isn't really felt. Honestly, I've been trying to be NICE to Marcy but she has seven episodes dedicated to her... If you REALLY stretch the definition because I'd argue half of those are actually about Anne while we're simply told things about Marcy for Anne to wallow about or Marcy is just there for moralizing at Maddie in what is actually a Maddie episode so that's closer 3-4 which puts her on par with TOADSTOOL. If not straight up behind him.

I'm not saying they're unimportant. I'm not saying they're bad. Just that the focus of the story is on change and on community. Singular characters struggle to fit those themes. Sasha exists for two entire seasons just to challenge them as she opposes Anne's willingness to change, is stubborn in her refusal to change and loses her community because she's not willing to show care to them. It's really good... But it's SEVEN episode segments out of almost EIGHTY. And in s3, she gets two more dedicated to her and then is more an ensemble member for the Oum stuff, especially mother Oum, and then helps in the final fights of the finale, with a bit of her being commander sprinkled in like any random Wartwood citizen before.

And why is that? Because she joins the main cast the same way ALL of Wartwood is a part of the main cast. In finding community, she finds a place amongst the main players but I do not consider HER, INDIVIDUALLY, to be a main character, just like I don't argue Hop Pop or Polly are INDIVIDUALLY main characters. Honestly, questionably even Sprig.

It's the idea that a supporting group of characters can come together enough to build a main pillar of the show better than any one of them. If you claim NONE of the Wartwood characters are main characters, you trivialize the ENTIRE SETTING. But those characters are interconnected enough, tied together so tightly as a joint unit of characters, even if only one or two may get focus per episode, that you can see their change happen gradually in their own, collective arc.

And that arc is more important and arguably even more powerful. After all, if Wartwood hadn't changed, Sasha would never have gotten her second chance. She'd have died in Turning Point. Or they wouldn't have ever gone back to them in the first place. Marcy might have been told to piss off simply because she was from Newtopia because they didn't want to be looked down on. The armies might not have come together if Wartwood and others weren't moved to start thinking of the bigger picture rather than petty squables.

These are all critical to payoffs in the show and the themes, just as much, if not more, than anything with Sasha. It's why I think Thai Temple is one of the most important S3A episodes because it reassures that you don't have to go to a fantasy realm for community. There are lots of them who wish to share who they are, welcome in people with open minds, etc. like that and who will support each other in dark times.

There's a reason why Anne's final words to the Core, her refusal of it absolutely, isn't about Marcy and Sasha. It's about the world. And of course she's the one standing there because she has had the biggest impact on, and impacted by, the various communities of Earth, Amphibia and Wartwood especially. She is fighting for them, for they are her greatest treasures.

SO. With my having hopefully made myself clear: Let's talk about some of the claims you make with other shows so I can dig myself a hole. If you just want the Amphibia stuff, you can leave now.

TOH is a fucking nightmare to classify. Main characters often are meant to be storytelling engines, help establish what is most important to the show and set the status quote for antagonists and side characters to disrupt. Again, it's why Sasha actually makes a great primary antagonist early on for the capstone episodes because she does challenge Anne on much of this, just isn't around 99% of the time.

TOH has the problem that a story can be poorly written enough to make you wonder "WHO THE FUCK IS THE MAIN CAST!?" There's ALL sorts of arguments I could make, not helped that just time wise, Amity takes up a literal third of the show and doesn't help themes, doesn't push the plot forward and mostly doesn't fit the show's GENRE even. But time wise, she actually gets close to as much, time especially Luz, as Eda does. Eda spends literally NO time with Luz in the second S1 after all because she's too busy spending time with her sister.

Gus and Willow are LAUGHABLE to be called main supporting characters because every single one of Willow's episodes is actually someone else's and Gus gets one every half season and they also had to break their magic for one of them with a retcon. Hell, Willow gets maybe a dozen lines in the entirety of S2A and then I'm not sure if she actually says more than two lines to Luz in the entirety of S2B.

The only other one I can comment on is MLP which I watched... A bit over five seasons if I'm remembering right (I despised Starlight's redemption as one of the worst redemptions I've ever seen, let alone how it felt like they were performing character assassination on others to make Starlight look good afterwards) so this is from that perspective.

And like... No. Just no. Not even the entirety of the Mane 6 are always there and Spike certainly isn't around 24/7 but the only characters you listed, besides Starlight because yes, she was made into a main character, who got more than MAYBE two episodes a season are the Cutie Mark Crusaders. A lot of the fandom WISHES Luna and Celestia did more instead of feeling like a stiff breeze can incapacitate them and getting mentioned does not make you a main character. Trixie was a reoccurring villain but not very often. Even with the CMC, Apple Bloom is a main supporting character of Applejack... But they themselves are more side characters. They're along the same vein as most of the Wartwood citizens honestly.

None of them are bad mind you, I have been inspired by all the characters you've listed (Michael Hudson on fimfiction and no, I do not condone everything there but I don't like denying my past and so I don't nuke the entire account) before and I like a lot of stories with them. It doesn't make them main characters. At best, I'd put them in a middle tier where they're just supporting characters and part of that's simply because SIX MAIN CHARACTERS IS A LOT OF MAIN CHARACTERS. It's kind of hard to get in a word edgewise when that's the case, something TOH also suffers from.

I keep main character status TIGHT because those are the characters the story genuinely revolves around. If your existence only revolves around a different character, you're probably not a main character. As an example of my own work: In Rich Witch, I'd argue Pythia, despite being a part of the main 5 girls, is not a main character. Arguably, neither is Blair as she takes on more of an antagonist role. The main characters of that series are Azu, Igni and Daina. If a plotline doesn't have any effect on those three, I'm not going to include it.

And I think that's just straight up better for storytelling, at least if you're going for a tighter, more focused narrative. After all, the six protagonist for MLP work BECAUSE that show isn't about having a tight narrative so having a wide breadth of perspectives to potentially invoke stories is useful for it.

Amphibia is not the same way which is why I argue if anyone is the main character than Anne... It's in units because the whole of those people being affected matters more than any singular one. And that isn't me calling them bad, or unimportant or disinteresting. It's just me classifying it as I believe and that will paint how I analyze the show.

Sorry if you don't like it.

======+++++======= Side note: Don't expect more blogs on this topic. I have now addressed it but I don't think it's actually that useful of a point to deliberate, not when I'd rather talk about how effective the characters are regardless of their specific titles. After all, for as much as I want to teach with this stuff, it's still MY opinion and this is how I view the show.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[pikablob]

Which would you say is worse, The Mountain King or The Fifty Year Night?

I went into this fully expecting to say The Fifty-Year Night. It's kind-of the poster child for the parts of Hilda I don't like; it's a microcosm of all the things Season 2 did wrong, it's the episode that's probably inspired more of my fics than any other (and that's not a good thing), and the one time I made a tier list of episodes, it earned its own tier below the normal 'worst'. On the other hand, The Mountain King does have some major bits I like. But I don't just want to say that without some actual thought, so I've decided on a criteria.

Basically, the worse storyline is the one I'd have to change the most in order to fix.

I've talked extensively about The Fifty-Year Night before, and I've also talked about fixing it before. I went into this in my post about fixing Season 2, but I'll go over it here, too, for people who haven't or don't want to read that post (which is completely okay). Fundamentally, I have 3 problems with this episode:

Johanna is unfair to Hilda, and the narrative blames Hilda for it.

The content of this episode is darker and more distressing than a Hilda episode should be.

The complexities of the time travel aren't really explained, and ultimately some things don't make sense.

I won't labour point 1, because I think it's self-explanatory and I've been over it before. Point 2 is really about all the genuinely awful death scenes in this episode, which are just too far for Hilda as a show. And point 3 is something I've seen brought up a few times - it's never actually explained how time worms or changing the past actually work, which leads to weird questions like "is the old future deleted, or does everyone get duplicated and a time worm eats the wrong future people?" - Tildy still being around implies it's the latter, but then the original Johanna is still around and the time worm ignores her - or "why does the enchantment apply to every copy of the magazine, but destroying only one of them stops it?"

For the first point, my solution is simply to gut this episode of any mother-daughter conflict. I actually did this in my Season 2 fix, even when keeping the Stone Forest; the core of this episode is the genuinely beautiful might-have-been of Mr. Ostenfeld and Tildy, and that doesn't rely on anything surrounding Johanna. For the other issues, there is a fix already written hiding in a very unusual place:

Normally, I don't recommend the tie-in novels. They have a lot of issues, and this one is no exception. But weirdly, the version of Fifty-Year Night in this book does actually fix the issues I have with the time travel stuff.

There's no child death, and the Ostenfelds all sort of 'glitch out' in a tonally-good creepy way before they get eaten, so they're not screaming etc. So that's already dealt with. But this version also does away with having the original Tildy show up at the end, and instead gives his role to the original Mr. Ostenfeld, who survives and has a geniune arc instead of being unceremoniously dumped halfway through; this gives him a much more meaningful ending, but also confirms that nobody from the original timeline is still around in the future, which clears up the time-travel confusion. He's actually pretty much the only adult Hilda forms a genuine connection with in the tie-ins (besides a minor character in The Great Parade.)

So, to fix The Fifty Year Night, I'd take that. I'd combine the genuine heartfelt emotion of the show version (which the novel does miss), with the softer and more sensible mechanics of the tie-in novel, and then just bypass the Hilda & Johanna stuff entirely. Honestly, it's not a huge script change to make it into something that would work with the tone and feeling of S1.

The Mountain King, on the other hand, is actually a tougher nut to crack. It does have a lot of stuff I like, and on the surface, it doesn't seem like its problems are much worse:

Trylla is genuinely unlikeable and her 'redemption' doesn't work.

Erik gets off too lightly (TBF this one is less important).

Again, some scenes are just too distressing for this series.

Frida and David's storyline is functionally irrelevant.

The problem is that fixing these to my standards would require substantial changes to the story. Point 1 (and really point 3) are central to the story; the whole thing is about a kidnapping, a genuinely unforgiveable act that only gets compounded (twice) later on, and yet we have to sympathise with the kidnapper. Likewise, point 4 exists because David and Frida aren't main characters in the graphic novels, so they weren't in the original version of this storyline at all (barring a brief appearance by Frida in The Stone Forest that provides Johanna with the motivation to be awful).

There is, I think, a way to fix The Mountain King, and turn it into the finale that the first two seasons deserved. But that way involves ripping out the entire main thrust of the plot. Because what I would do to fix it is remove the changeling stuff entirely, and turn David and Frida's story into the central one.

The Hilda movie should have been about Hilda and her friends actually working to stop Erik and the Safety Patrol from going to war with the trolls. It should have been about them starting a movement amongst the students; about them reaching out to all of the creatures they've met and befriended so far, to prove that they're not bad and to protect their homes; about them standing up for something, from the start, and showing the people of Trolberg that they don't need to be afraid of what's outside the walls.

I'd keep the climax the same - I'd probably have Hilda still tricked into freeing Trundle (he promises her he'll lead the trolls to peace or something similar) - but I'd only keep the David & Frida stuff beyond that. I'd rework Trylla entirely, into Hilda venturing into the Stone Forest to find that troll mum who helped her before in order to learn the truth and stop Trundle. And I'm sure the result would be amazing, but it would be pretty much unrecogniseable compared to the movie we actually got.

And that's why, honestly, as much as The Mountain King has more stuff I like in it, I'd say it's worse. Because to fix The Fifty-Year Night, I only need to tweak some things; to fix Mountain King, I need a sledgehammer.

[cyberdragoninfinity]

4, 20 for the yugioh ask game?

IM GOING TO BE NAILED TO THE CROSS FOR THESE I FEAR

4. Favorite season/story arc

for each series i have seen:

DM: *crying anime girl jpg* SORRY FOR BEING A SEASON 4 LIKER IM SORRY I CANT HELP IT. like objectively battle city is the best arc but Waking the Dragon DOMA Atlantis will forever be where my heart calls home. you had to be there (baby dana in 2004 getting her entire brain chemistry blasted open by cool dragons and rex raptor's soul being ripped out of his body.) again,

GX: i love the first season of GX so much and so genuinely... it's just so silly and fun and the little filler antics make me smile so much. I'm also very fond of season 4 even though it's a pretty divisive one (and a little clunky i will admit).... seeing these kids get ready to graduate and grow up makes me sooo soft ;___;

5Ds: *crying anime girl jpg AGAIN* SORRY FOR BEING 5DS SEASON 2'S STRONGEST SOLDIER IM SORRY I CANT HELP ITTTTTTT like. ok see below there are part of it that Suck but that first chunk of s2 where the gang just dicks around in the garage and bruno is there is just such a treat. anyway also my actual top fav story arc is The Ark Cradle. We Know This. I am genuinely considering getting a custom ARKCRDL license plate for my car. that stretch of episodes is probably My Favorite Chunk of Yugioh Thus Far. it makes me sick in the head. it makes me explode. What if every duel Whipped Like Hell. What if Old Man Divorce happened For Real.

Zexal: god all of zex is so fuckin good but my fav is probably that first chunk of season too, the initial Barian Invasion...it's just peak yugioh hijinks and the horrors have yet to hit and it's FUN. THEY PLAY BASEBALL. RAY SHADOWS IS VERY HERE. GIRAG AND ALITO BESTIES MOMENTS. ART STANLEY.

20. Least favorite season/story arc:

again, for each series:

DM: god KC Grand Prix was bad. i thought it was bad when i was a kid and then i rewatched it and it still Was Not Very Good. i will fight for every other DM filler arc but Not That One. Sorry.

GX: aaaahhhhhh man i gotta say probably season 3....just like. especially that first half of it. When season 3 is good it's REALLY FUCKIN GOOD but it has moments that drag like hell and are just. Not fun to watch. and im still not rly the biggest fan of what they did with Jaden's character in that season...ah well. season 4 brings it home so i cant complain too much.

5Ds: ok yeah i can only defense s2 so much i love you WRGP but when you drag you FUCKING DRAG. WHY IS THE TEAM UNICORN DUEL LIKE 5 EPISODES LONG. THOG DONT CARE. WHERE ARE MY ITALIANS. also i love the dark signers arc but that shit with the ape king. i wish i could delete you from the canon.

Zexal: i actually dont think i have a 'least fav' season or arc! I genuinely had so much fun with all of Zexal and i think there's good to be found in all of it. i luv zexal :]

[onetimetwotimesthreetimess]

KILL ME NOW I CANT TAKE ALL THESE EMOTIONS KANDKNSKA I AM WRECK WITH CARLOS FINDING OUT ABOUT HIS DADS WORK AND GABRIEL DYING JUST LIKE THAT AND COPING WITH THE PAIN AND BEING BLINDED BY IT AND TK GOING TO OWEN AND OWEN ACTING LIKE THE DAD HE HAS JUST LOST AND THE PROPOSAL AGAIN AND AND THE WEDDING AND THE VOWS AND THE SONG IN THE END WITH ALL THE IMAGES I CANNOT KANDKNSJANA

Honestly these are some of the finest hours of television I have watched. I understand that a lot of people are not happy with the finale and it’s valid but I absolutely loved it. I think the issue was with releasing the episodes back to back cause that shit was overwhelming to say the least but I loved loved loved everything.

I wish Gabriel would not have died but like it’s network tv and characters are always killed to raise the stakes and I don’t particularly like it but I’ve braved through 15 seasons of Grey’s where main characters have been brutally killed so as much as I loved him—better secondary characters like Charles/Robert than any of the mains from the 126.

Anyways—on to the good parts.

1. The 126 scene at the beginning lmao they are all so unserious all the time I love them

2. Gabriel and Carlos broke my heart in that scene

3. I didn’t really care much about Robert but he grew on me? I wish we’d seen more of him so that I was more emotionally damaged lmao

4. CARLOS IN HIS VILLAIN ERA IS EVERYTHING TO ME I LOVED THE UNHINGENESS THE CURLS THE ABSOLUTE GOING OFF THE RAILS ARC.

5. TK being the supportive fiancé>>🥺🥺 “we’re not going to say cancelled”

6. DOUBLE PROPOSAL OOF>>

7. THE WEDDING THE HONEYMOON SCENE THE VOWS THEIR SMILES THEIR SUITS THE HAPPIBESS THAT MF SONG TOMMY AND FUCK ALL THE COUPLES BEING HAPPY I—

8. Also did you watch the deleted scenes?? I am so obsessed with them

9. The only thing I didn’t like was the Wyatt and Judd’s storyline. I work in the field of public health and disability and the saviour complex irked me to no end. Wyatt was given absolutely no rights in his entire treatment and I hate that. And the whole “you can do it you can do it” pressure by Judd wasn’t very helpful. I work with a lot of parents too and while I understand and see their pain when their kid has a disability and the mental toll on them—it’s still no excuse for violating their rights.

OKAY BUT I OVERALL I LOVED THE TWO EPISODES. I WISH WE GOT MORE TARLOS WEDDING BUT ITS AN ENSEMBLE AND YET TARLOS GETS SO MUCH SCREENTIME SO I AM 100% CONTENT UNTIL WE GET ALL THOSE DELETED SCENES!!!

[blockgamepirate]

The Purgatory event and the new Traffic/Life series happening at the same time is really making me think about my personal frustrations with mixing storytelling oriented roleplay and structured or rules oriented gameplay

I'm obviously not saying you can't mix those successfully, but for me at least there are some grey areas between the two where it just becomes extremely frustrating to me, to the point that I can't enjoy it and often get actually mad about it

(I know, I know, I should be more mature about it, whatever, I'm being mature by trying my best to shut up, at least in public)

Basically my problem is that if you're gonna mix these two types of playing, there's basically only two options I find satisfying:

1. keep the roleplay very light and non-serious while focusing on the structured gameplay (some fudging of the rules for the sake of roleplay is fine if it makes things more fun)

2. make the gameplay and the rules just the setting/starting off point and from there the roleplay and storytelling should always be the priority (obviously some occasional handwaving is fine but it should never be anything that seriously breaks character or gets in the way of what would be the most interesting direction for the story)

The problem is that between these two there's option 1.5, which is where both styles of play are equally mixed, and that's where the danger zone lies for me.

I think the best case scenario for me is when it's option 1 turning gradually into option 2. I'm sort of fine with that direction, because I just love roleplay and storytelling. What REALLY gets to me though, is when option 2 suddenly starts moving towards option 1.

The best example of this for me is the Last Life SMP finale, which I'm just still so mad about and no I have no chill, if I seem chill about it, it's because I'm censoring myself to be polite. They had the perfect set up for Scott and Pearl, the two survivers of the GGG, and Rendog and Martyn, the two survivers of the Shadows and also characters connected through a bond that crossed over from Third Life, to go head to head in a final battle, but crucially staying loyal to their teammates to the end. But nahhhhh clearly what we should do instead is just ignore all preceding character arcs and just do a basic ass four person battle royale round. And then unceremoniously kill the winner immediately after so they can't even do one last thing before they go.

(Sorry Last Life fans, I think that's like most people's favourite season, or that's the impression I have. I did say that I was holding back purely out of politeness. I actually have zero chill about this. I even had to delete some lines that were getting a bit too salty just now.)

But yeah, the reason why I had to stop watching Purgatory on day one was because I was getting that same feeling of frustration because it felt like they were going from peak dramatic roleplay to suddenly doing a random ass PVP tournament with random ass teams. I mean to be fair there is a story excuse for it because there's that eye entity or whatever that's making the players do this in-universe, but still, it was getting to me. I wasn't having a good time and I was getting mad so I decided I needed to quit and hear from others later whether it would even be worth watching for me.

Still not entirely sure if I like this arc, but I've calmed down enough to give it a shot

Just trying to analyse why I have these reservations. And yes I know it's personal preference and most people probably don't feel this way or at least not as intensely about it. I know a lot of people understandably enjoy the variety and that's fine. I'm just explaining my perspective.

I guess it really is mostly just about feeling jebaited as a fan of roleplay and storytelling.

[calumthetraveler]

So, as someone who writes habitual longfics as a matter of course, somehow... (I cite my doorstopper crossover works Stargate Alternia, and Mobile Suit Gundam: Curses and Witches, all parts of which can be found on AO3 under my handle "Calum Traveler") On the 'find a plot that interests you,' it helps to think of things overall in acts, or seasons, and have a general overall idea for that act/season. If you have a major plot beat for each arc/act/season that you want to build towards, think of all the little plot beats that are needed to build up to it, and give them the room to breathe. If you're writing a long fic, there's no time limit holding you to 'everything must be accomplished in such and such amount of chapters.'

Vague Spoilers for those fics beneath the Read More Cut below.

For an example in Stargate Alternia, I had the idea to explode a planet in a then uncertain someone's face in the finale of Act 5 Act 2, so I set up a lot of the pieces to allow that well in advance. For Example: Evacuating the planet in question and the reasons for that evacuation became its own entire little arc of its own that spanned multiple episodes across a season. And I had it set up and ready to go well ready in advance for the moment things finally explode, and in the process of knocking that out early, I was able to then focus on other plot elements and build up to their relevance properly. The trick really comes into play in figuring out what pieces you need to flawlessly pull off your major plot twists later, and how to make them seem like you aren't just pulling a power-up out of thin air. Foreshadowing is your friend, but the key is to not *overplay* the foreshadowing. When I feel like I've stumbled in managing this, it's due to changing my plots around spur of the moment, or that I've not planned well *enough* in advance of what I want/need.

It's tempting to blame myself for that, but I remind myself that I write for fun, and part of the fun is making sure that I can figure out where things went wrong so I can do it better next time. In retrospect I'd say Curses and Witches is a rewrite of Stargate Alternia, which itself could be considered a rewrite of Digimon XWAU02. At least, in terms of the same general 'throw things at the wall and see what sticks' method refining my writing process. Plot wise they're all very different, except on a surface level of themes. All three end up being takes on Parallel Worlds, Time Travel, Godhood and Deity Ascensions; giant robots of some kind feature heavily. Each features a bloated cast list of characters that requires careful juggling to manage right... and I HAVE failed at that across these stories. There are some characters that I wanted to write for that have just fallen by the wayside over the course of each story. My advice there is to try to keep your cast list focused down. XWAU02 had a massive cast list by nature of being a Digimon Xros Wars fanfic. Stargate Alternia also had a massive cast list by nature of being a Stargate and Homestuck crossover, but it was an expansion of the work I'd done in XWAU02. I tried to see how large I could make my cast and if I could manage it. In response, Curses and Witches was originally meant to just be G-Witch/The Owl House as the main focus, and the cast was meant to be narrowed down in scope by comparison. Of course, once Bionicle entered the mix, the cast bloat happened, and some characters whom I'd planned on focusing on just... failed to manifest. I'm still writing Curses and Witches, to be fair, so I can't say whether I've managed to pull myself out of that spiral yet. Can I manage to regain the narrative focus on these characters who ought to have proper focus on them still? Dunno. Guess we'll see.

As for The Writing Itself...

My method for writing is very much a 'write until a chapter feels done' but also 'sometimes a little scene can just exist on its own.' Think of them like deleted scenes, except they're still canon. I can't stress enough how many 'little scene' Intermission chapters I wrote for Stargate Alternia that existed in between larger chapters ended up doing wonders for the pacing of the larger chapters, as instead of having to force a scene into a larger narrative that didn't quite *fit* those scenes. I think exponentially speaking, a *lot* of tiny little scenes ended up being written while I was working on the larger chapters, and those helped me start to build up a buffer. Buffers are your friends, but so too are the side plot narratives that don't necessarily *fit* in the main plot. To use my recent work Curses and Witches, The main bulk of the story that I intended to write is *part 5 of 6* of the series collection. What else exists before it?

Two 'prologue' fics- one a single chapter standalone adaptation of Witch From Mercury's "Prologue" episode, and one 15 chapter fic adapting Bionicle's Legends of Metru Nui and Web of Shadows movies by crashing them into eachother- and two sidestory fics, "Amnesiac Heart"- which is is nothing *but* these little tiny side-bits put together in a collection of chapters- and "Leaving the Cradles"- which, you guessed it, is a single chapter fic that jumps between a bunch of different tiny snipit bits that form the core backstory of multiple characters, used for world building purposes before I got into the main fic itself. What comes after? A side story backstory used for more worldbuilding of background mechanics, "Of Silver Pools and Ghostly Things," which due to various reasons, I declined to include in the main thrust of the story as it didn't add *a lot* to that narrative's already packed and crowded pacing. The little intermission scenes let me focus on characters or tiny bits of plot that just might not get room to breathe in the main narrative. By letting them exist as their own things, they can be there, and add to the overall supporting structure of the story, without needing to be properly woven into a complicated episode structure.

All those little scenes you want to write out with character interactions? If you feel the inspiration for them, Write them. Write them and let them play out.

Do you have any advice and how to write a long fic?

I'll encourage long fic writers to add on in the notes, but as someone who tends to prefer short and medium-length fic, I'll tell you how I go about it.

Get a premise that you just absolutely love. You're going to be writing this thing for months, if not longer, so you want it to be something you're willing to spend a lot of time thinking about.

Embrace subplots. You'll have your main plotline that you want to see through from beginning to end, but you can also weave in some subplots here or there. The way I do this so that I don't get lost down a rabbit hole is that I always make sure that every chapter has at least 1 thing that moves the main plot forward and then if I want to spend 1-2K with some side characters doing something fun I can do that as well. Subplots can extend for the length of the full narrative, but they can also just last a chapter or three. If you're used to writing short fic, these might give you that familiar feeling of "completion"

A chapter is only as long as it needs to be. Don't get hung up on having a consistent chapter length. Don't get hung up on hitting some arbitrary number every time. Instead, figure out what the next part of your story needs to include and write however many words it takes to get that chunk across. Varying your chapter lengths is a normal thing to do and not something to stress about.

The next thing that I find important personally may or may not be relevant to you, but I find that I can't plot anything in much detail. If I get too into the nitty gritty with my plotting, it just feels like I've already written it. I need to keep it at the level of "And then A and B meet C and hijinks ensue." I can figure out the particular hijinks later. It's the characters meeting up that's the next important thing for me to figure out. Getting too far ahead of myself is a death knell for me in writing long fics, but there are other writers who swear by it. Test out different ways of approaching it and see what works for you.

As someone who tends to write more briefly, another feature that's common to longer fics is more extensive descriptions. People spend time painting visual pictures of the setting or the characters or the actions that are happening. Write the more bare-bones style that focuses more on dialogue (if you're like me) and then go back and read through what you've just written and see if there are opportunities to add in more detail. This can lead to some really interesting characterization choices and also help you out with worldbuilding.

When it comes to worldbuilding, you don't have to get it all on the page. You just need to share what's relevant for the reader in that moment and what is useful to lay out now so that it's already there in a future chapter. You can have an encyclopedic knowledge of how your world works in your head, but it's not actually necessary. No one is going to be quizzing you later - and if they do, you can always figure it out at that point.

Most important for me when I'm trying to get myself to the end of a longer fic, have a friend or a group of friends who are also into what you're writing - or at least willing to hear you get excited about it. Being able to get excited about your work is so important. It's like a bottle of water being handed to you on mile 10 of a marathon.

[charlie-pippin-faraday]

Joy Mercer and Will Byers are essentially the same character

While looking at the parallels between House of Anubis and Stranger Things, I saw that there are a lot of overarching plot similarities (of course with their numerous differences). However, I couldn't help but notice the striking similarities in the narrative arc of one character in each show: Joy and Will. Almost the exact same thing happens to both of them, and they both follow practically the same plotline for a very large portion of their respective shows. Their respective season 1's are practically copies of each other, with their major differences starting to appear in later seasons when they actually have major screentime. A lot of the differences in their stories are due to their personality differences; as for the plot, they have the exact same role, and follow the same path with a lot of the same consequences.

So I want to break it down and show the parallels side-by-side to really just lay out how much they have in common (because it is a LOT). Here you can see all their equivalent plot points, narrative events, and their almost identical journey.

✨ Heads up: this is going to be a long post ✨

[please click on the photos to see them better]

1. Sudden mysterious disappearance

Both series are kicked off by the same initiating event: a character suddenly mysteriously disappears. We get to see them and establish their friendships for a scene or two before they vanish for the majority of season 1. For both shows, the plotline of the first season revolves around their disappearance. Joy gets kidnapped and hidden by the Society, and Will gets taken into the Upside Down by the Demogorgon, both without a trace.

Additionally: they also might have both been stolen away for a reason, because they were believed to be special. This is true for Joy, as they thought she was the Chosen One. This isn't confirmed yet for Will, but there are a lot of theories that he's got powers too, which is why he was chosen and how he survived the Upside Down and why he can sense the Mind Flayer/Vecna. There's also speculation that that's why he was spared in season 1, because they wanted to use him for a purpose, like the Society was planning to use Joy for a purpose.

2. Cover-up conspiracy of their disappearance

Both disappearances are covered up by secret organizations (the Society; Hawkins Lab) in order to hide a conspiracy. Joy's records are scrubbed and her social media deleted to try and erase her from existence, as well as fake correspondence sent to her friends in order to stop them from sniffing around and discovering the immortality cult, and perhaps even forget about her entirely. Hawkins Lab also tries to cover up Will's disappearance by producing a fake dead body and making it look like he died so that no one would come looking for him anymore and no one would stumble upon what was happening in the Lab.

3. Their best friend refuses to believe that they're gone and relentlessly looks for them

Both Joy and Will have a best friend who will stop at nothing to find them once they realize they've disappeared. In fact, their unrelenting search becomes one of the major plotlines of their respective season 1's. Both Patricia and Mike refuse to believe there's anything normal going on, and they refuse to stop looking or believe their friend is gone, despite the evidence to the contrary, and despite people telling them to stop. When the people in charge (the teachers, the government) try and get them to stop, they don't. Even when their other friends think it's useless, they never stop believing, to the point where just about everyone else thinks they're crazy.

Regardless, they never give up, even if they get involved in supernatural/otherworldly activities along the way.

4. Messages from beyond

While missing, both Will and Joy are able to communicate and get messages out to their family and friends, who are able to use it to help find them. Joy sends a coded message to Patricia (and eventually just texts her), and Will communicates with Joyce using the lights, along with the phone and radio. (Bonus points for the fake mirror message from "Joy" aka Alfie.)

5. A "girl with powers" coincidentally shows up right after they disappear

It feels very notable that almost immediately after they disappear, someone new shows up. And not just anyone: someone special, someone with some form of powers. Nina is the Chosen One, and Eleven has psychic abilities. It's almost too convenient how quickly these girls show up after they disappear. Almost like they're there to replace them (but not actually). And both girls are there to help solve the disappearance and save the day, both of which would not happen without them. The biggest difference in these shows with regards to the girl with powers is that the best friend (Mike) and most of the group embrace Eleven right away, while the best friend (Patricia) and most of the group shun Nina at first.

6. When they return, they're not the same

Both Will and Joy return for good in season 2, but as noted by the other characters, they're not the same. They go through major personality changes. Joy is a lot more guarded, harsh, and mean than her past self, for reasons we'll get into later. In her isolation, she also lost some of the bubbliness we see in the pilot episode, and she becomes rather withdrawn. The same goes for Will, who is even more quiet and withdrawn than before. He also has the unfortunate side effect of literally having pieces of the Upside Down within him, making the "not the same" comments more literal. Still waiting for Will to have his true angry arc like Joy had tho.

7. Their love interest is now dating the girl with powers

When they do return, they find out that something happened while they were gone: specifically, that their love interest got away. Both love interests become romantically involved with and eventually date the girl with powers, who had "replaced" them. So, not only were their love interests dating someone, but they're dating someone new and unfamiliar to Joy and Will. This leaves both of them pining for someone they can no longer have.

In Will's case, the best friend and the love interest are the same person, making it a double whammy for him.

8. Feelings of being replaced and others moving on without them

Both Will and Joy changed because of their experience, but everything else changed, too. After returning, they have to come back and try and find their place again in a group that has changed and maybe moved on without them. They expected it to remain the same as when they last saw it, but it's not anymore. Both of them are experiencing feelings of being replaced in their friend circles, particularly by the girl with powers, who showed up to fill their space while they were gone. This results in both of them fearing that their friends don't need or want them anymore. Joy, who is not a member of Sibuna, feels excluded, and feels that Nina is stealing her friends and taking what is rightfully hers. Will, while still a full member of the Party, also feels excluded and feels that Eleven and Max are stealing the attention of his friends (Mike and Lucas) away from him and the group, as they're acting like couples and he is obviously not part of one due to the fact that he's gay, even though no one knows this. Both Joy and Will feel "othered" and excluded. They're growing apart from their best friend and can no longer have their love interest (though for Will, this is the same person). They just want to go back to the way things were, even though that's not really possible anymore.

In their minds, they have someone they can blame for part of this change, someone they can point to: the girl with powers, who's throwing a wrench in everything (though Will also throws a tiny little bit of blame on Max, who's also new to the group, but most goes to Eleven because he is focused on Mike, the best friend/love interest). They each react to this situation differently, mainly because Joy hates Nina and Will likes Eleven (and eventually becomes a brother figure to her). Joy tries to actively do something about it and remove the "problem" while Will is passive, preferring to fade into the background or even just take himself out of the equation if anything.

9. Lashing out

All of these frustrations eventually lead to Joy and Will lashing out, albeit in very different ways. Joy writes a nasty, defamatory article about Nina with the intent to hurt her, ultimately hoping it will remove her from her life and eliminate her problems, even though it ends up backfiring on her big time. Will, on the other hand, goes into a rage and destroys Castle Byers, the fort he and his brother made when he was a kid. Joy lashes out to hurt others like they hurt her; Will keeps it to himself, and instead of punishing his friends he punishes himself to compound the hurt. Castle Byers is a representation of his friendships and his childhood, so he gets out his frustrations about his situation and about growing up that way. His lashing out is more symbolic, as he's not intending to make any active change like Joy is. But do their actions make either of them feel better? No. Because it doesn't change anything, and it just leads to tears.

10. Lasting trauma

As expected, they both have a whole boatload of trauma. Joy is still clearly traumatized by her experience, though less obviously than Will who can still physically see the Upside Down. Joy is hesitant to return to Sibuna activities, and robes are a trigger for her, as seen in the above photo. And I don't feel like I need to say much for Will, that boy is constantly being terrorized by the Upside Down, particularly in season 2 but he can still sense stuff in seasons 3 and 4 as well.

11. Almost die to supernatural causes and have to be revived

Save for some notable exceptions (ex. Max, Eddies plural), Joy and Will are the only kids in their respective shows that were seriously close to actually dying. Joy might've actually died, I'm a little fuzzy on that; either way, she was brought back to life with the Tears of Gold. Unsure if Will officially died, but he did have to be resuscitated by Hopper and Joyce. Both of them had a very very close brush with death due to supernatural forces (Senkhara, Upside Down), which is the last parallel I'm going to use to bond them together.

Now, I'm sure I could make more points and bring up more similarities. But Will's story isn't done yet, and I want to see what happens in Stranger Things 5 before I compare to Joy's healing and journey in the latter stages of HOA season 3. So, up to this point, I rest my case.

Joy Mercer 🤝 Will Byers = the same

[zuko-always-lies]

If you would do an ATLA rewrite, how would you polish the characters and plot-line?

So I assume you want a polish where the core of the story and characters is kept the same instead of a total rewrite. In any case, I've thrown about 10,000 AU ideas out there and I don't think I would write ATLA if I started from scratch, so I'm going to focus on a polish.

First, we're probably going to need another season. Book 3 ended up notoriously cramped, and having more space would help with this problem. As you'll see, I have plenty of ideas that will take up more space anyways. The number one thing I want to emphasize is moral complexity:

1) Zuko's arc needs a bit of a broader basis. His daddy issues are fine and very emotional, but we need more. We need to have him demonstrate he cares about ordinary people, that he's learning and improving and growing and becoming someone who can save the Fire Nation. I think one of the easiest ways of doing this is having Zuko stay with the Gaang longer and have to deal with the problems the Gaang deals with.

2) Zuko becomes friends with the Gaang organically across several episodes in which he aids the Gaang deal with challenges, not through tailor-made "life-changing field trips."

3) Ozai's evil plan isn't destroying the Earth Kingdom(which he's already 90% conquered!), it's destroying the Northern Water Tribe using the power of Sozin's Comet. This threatens the world because he'll end up killing the moon and the ocean, with no Yue to save things anymore.

4) Zuko tells the Gaang about Ozai's plan the instant he joins them, instead of hiding it from them for months for no reason??

5) We see much more of how Ozai mistreated his children, instead of aggressively hiding Ozai for most of the series.

6) Ozai gets humanized much more, but in a way that doesn't deemphasize his evil.

7) It gets pounded into the audience's head that Ursa is/was an imperialist, so they have to deal with the moral complexity of someone being nice to Zuko and still supporting the war.

8) Zuko centered morality doesn't fucking exist.

9) Many more female characters, particularly benders.

10) Write an actual character treatment for Suki and refer back to it, so she's not just a blank space.

11) Jet survives, and ends up joining the Gaang. He's not only someone who offers a unique perspective (that of an Earth Kingdom peasant), he offers an excellent opportunity to call Iroh out.

12) Delete the Order of the White Lotus(and probably Piandao too) from the narrative, it's useless, pointless, and raises more questions than it answers.

13) Iroh can start off just as flawed as canon, but give him an arc throughout the series where he's forced to confront his flaws and become a better person(or just make him be evil and a bad influence like the series bible). Emphasize his bloody past, and make people actually call him on it.

14) Delete Iroh's postcanon tea shop. He ends his arc advising and aiding Firelord Zuko, not abandoning him.

14) Sokka, Katara, and Aang get much more emphasis placed on their trauma as victims of genocide throughout the series.

15) Aang's issues with killing get introduced much earlier(and in part actually stem from a reaction to learning how many people he's killed).

16) Hama gets treated with empathy; maybe she still kills civilians, but she's deliberately going after those producing material for the war effort as a way to continue fighting.

17) Don't deliberately dangle the "Where is my mother?" hook in front of audience at the end of the series with zero plans to actually answer it.

18) Azula must be consistently depicted with empathy. And cut the ableism surrounding her portrayal.

19) Actually mention some ages on screen.

20) I'm actually fine with Azula being initially demonized in her first couple portrayals, if the narrative then rapidly switched to humanizing her and calls into question audience perceptions. Waiting an entire season after her introduction to humanize her. The audience should be left with no doubt she cares deeply about her friends.

21) Show many more interactions between the Dangerous Ladies.

22) Maybe an "Azula Alone" episode, which would delve deeply into Azula's relationships with her friends.

23) Cut the whole "Azula lies to Ozai about who killed the Avatar" thing, it only provides an excuse to demonize Azula. Azula claims that both her and Zuko killed the Avatar, and you can even very much run Zuko being terrified the Avatar is alive from there.

24) Zuko doesn't lie to Azula about there being no chance Aang survived.

25) We get more interactions between Zuko and Ty Lee.

26) Azula's motives need to be pounded into the heads of the audience, Zuko-style.

27) Move away from using Zuko as the only viewpoint into the Fire Nation palace. Have a "Tales of the Palace" episode which covers more. Show Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee reacting to Zuko betraying them.

28) The Zuko-Azula relationship can be the mess it is in canon, but have Zuko legitimately try to be kind to her at least once. And end the series on the hint that they can reconcile, that Azula can recover and become a better person.

29) Azula's relationship with her friends falls apart, but because she expects and demands too much from them, not because of Zuko.

30) Show more about Kya.

31) Use Suki more in a substantive way; let her express her opinions.

32) Don't have the Air Nomads be vegetarians, because pastoralists are not vegetarians.

33) Emphasize imperialism and imperialist ideology much more as a motive for the actions of Fire Nation characters.

34) Don't have Bumi be an abusive asshole.

35) Let Aang, Sokka, and Katara be hurt and traumatized a lot more.

36) Call more attention to how screwed up many of the expectations placed on Katara are.

37) Hold Sokka and Katara reuniting with Hakoda after the DoBS until the end of the series rather than the clumsy writing we got.

38) Teo, Haru, and the Duke don't end up on the Western Air Temple, only to be clumsily written out of the series.

39) Iroh's day of Sozin's Comet assault on Ba Sing Se gets cut out; instead he does something substantive and meaningful to protect the people he once hurt.

40) Have Zuko have a much more gradual turn against the Fire Nation in a manner that emphasizes the role of his experiences in the Earth Kingdom.

41) Toph needs more character development.

I'm not entirely happy with this list, but I think it's a worthwhile set of fairly easy ways that the ATLA narrative could be polished.

[sofoulandfairaday]

The ultimate How I Met Your Mother Finale rant

I know this has been done before, and I know I'm several years late to the party, but I don't care, so IN THIS ESSAY I WILL tell you about why this finale takes the spot as the second-worst finale in TV show history (because Game of Thrones is still, to this day, unbeatable, and it will probably stay like that forever). 

But first, a little context: I've just finished binge-watching HIMYM. This binge has been going on for three days straight (my final exam of the semester is in a week and I should be studying, so the fact that the last few days were a partial waste of time makes me so mad). Second thing: I already knew how it would end, and yes, kids, it does ruin the show for you. It ruins the show so much it makes your blood boil when you rewatch certain scenes, but I will get to that. 

You might want to make yourself a drink because this is a complete list of all the reasons why HIMYM's finale sucks - I'm warning you, it's gonna be looong.

It completely invalidates the entirety of season 9

This is one of the complaints people most often have with this series, and I have to agree. It would have been so much better if the last two episodes never existed, and they just showed Barney and Robin dancing at the reception after walking out of the chapel, Ted noticing Tracy and then the platform scene. "And that, kids, is the story of how I met your mother". Cut scene. Honestly, I don't get the hate people give to season 9, barring the last 2/3 episodes, especially since season 8 was so much worse (except for a few honourable mentions, like The Robin). S8 was slower, less funny, and less deep, and while the authors took a risk by making s9 happen in the span of a weekend it paid off: they took their time introducing the character of the Mother to the gang and fleshing her out. They make sure to highlight all the little ways in which Ted and Tracy are perfect for each other, and even tie up loose ends, like with the Slapsgiving episode, that was a filler but it wasn't boring to watch (although it may be problematic for different reasons, I'm not Chinese, so I can't say for sure if it's cultural appropriation or just the authors making fun of a particular movie genre). 

Some episodes were arguably great: "Daisy" was amazing, and that whole fight between Marshall and Lily was so realistic and well thought out, "Sunrise" was extremely important for Ted's character development, same goes for Tracy and "How Your Mother Met Me", "Bedtime stories" was impressive, "Rally" was incredibly funny and proved once again what a beautiful character Barney Stinson is, so much so that even Robin never has doubts that he (the guy with the biggest commitment issues on the planet) will bail on her before the wedding, and says to Ted that "he always comes back". Daphne's character is super funny and the right amount of annoying, the shenanigans of the gang are well thought out and all of the characters (not just Barney) complete their arc in this season. The last two/three episodes butcher that.

Marshall and Lily

Marshall and Lily, arguably the world's most solid couple, are the only thing this God-awful finale gets right, especially Marshall, who is my second-favourite character, that finally gets everything he deserves. But what about Lily? They never mention her career after Italy, and I refuse to believe she goes back to being a kindergarten teacher as if her year in Rome meant nothing. I also refuse to think she becomes nothing but a political wife, the equivalent of Zoey, but without saving the world. We know she has three kids, but her postpartum depression is never really talked about much and they definitely had the screentime to delve into it. 

Barney

 Where do I even begin? Barney Stinson is, without a doubt, the best character in this series, the glue of the whole gang. I think the message they were trying to give is that, since his trauma stemmed from the absence of a father figure in his life, he could only truly heal by becoming a father as well. People also say that n°31 had to stay just a number, because who could match up with Barney Stinson? First of all, I call BULSHIT on that last point, because Robin wasn't the only girl Barney could have ended up marrying. I used to think that too, but it's just not true: that is the equivalent of saying that Barney was incapable to truly love a woman and commit to her, even after all the development he got, and that he only got one shot at love in life, and that's it. This goes against the point the showrunners try to make by having Ted and Robin end up together AND by having Tracy get with Ted in the first place: "it's never too late, you always have another chance at love, etc." And, let's face it, Barney and Robin are legendary, but Barney and Nora (hell, even Barney and Quinn!) were pretty good together too. 

Second of all, if they wanted to give Barney a kid, they could have easily done that, before Barney married Robin. Barney's "redemption" starts when he gets with Robin the first time, hell maybe even when we meet James for the first time: Nora, Quinn, finding out who his father is, the episode dedicated to the lies his mum told him/finding James' father, him getting to know his own dad, etc... those are all steps along the way. The s9 episode where Barney accepts the relationship between Loretta and the reverend proves how far he's come. So why not give him a daughter BEFORE he proposes to Robin? Have him cheat on Nora/Quinn with n°31, giving him a relapse, and having him get closer to Robin while struggling to be a dad to Ellie. That would have been great. 

Or, you know, don't give him children. What's the point of burning the Playbook if you're going to have him write the second edition? What's the point of having him do a complete 180 in the last few scenes and acting like having a kid is the only thing that makes him change? What's the point of doing that when the show spends entire episodes berating Marshall and Lily for "changing too much" when they have a kid?

Also, Barney is the "challenge accepted" guy. He loves his wife so much, he spent years wanting her, and then he gives up because there is no WiFi in his hotel. How does that make any sense at all? This is Barney Stinson, the "I will fly out to San Francisco and buy Lily a plane ticket", the "I will steal every girl from my best friend just to save him for Lily", the guy that wrote the Playbook (it takes effort to pull those plays off), the guy that planned for weeks his proposal, the guy that waited years to get back at the man who stole his first girlfriend, the guy that makes every night legendary... are you telling me that that guy becomes the equivalent of a bored housewife instead of living his best life while travelling the world? Come on. They don't even try to make it believable.

Ted

While watching seasons 7 and 8, I felt that Ted was becoming the worst character on the show: he was boring, depressed, basically had no good storylines, the whole thing with Victoria was pointless and inconclusive (and the whole "stop being in love with Robin" was completely out of character for her), but whatever, we could have accepted that because it passed the message that two people could be good together, without being soulmates - which, by the way, renders the TedxRobin ship pointless, because they were right for each other, but Ted and Tracy were soulmates. Him being hung up on Robin in the latter seasons is almost pathetic, and the thing he does with the locket is insane, not romantic - BUT I will say this: it can be seen in two ways, depending on who's watching. I personally like the two as friends, so I see the whole thing as a "Dahmer" situation, but I get the people who see it as a "Dobler" one and see what he did as a grand romantic gesture. 

The problem, though, is that the whole TedxRobin ship gets pretty old, pretty fast: it's an annoying on-and-off thing, that should have ended with the locket. Because, yes, Ted was in a dark moment, yes, he was probably depressed, yes, he thought Robin was his only shot at happiness, but he changes during season nine! He spends entire episodes letting go of Robin, including the one where she transforms into a balloon and flies away. Ted is the good guy, ultimately. He is the guy that is genuinely happy for his best friends. In one of the deleted scenes from the finale, he meets Robin years later and says that he's so happy with Tracy he never thought about Robin in that way anymore. All of that gets thrown in the trash. Why do that? To use a Harry Potter metaphor, Ted is Severus Snape, while Barney is James Potter: the former loved the girl of his dreams with all his heart, even to the point of creepiness, but they weren't meant to be together. 

Robin

This, along with the next point, is the worst of all: Robin is the worst character of the entire finale. Her relationship with Ted in season 2 is wonderful, and I say that as a full-on Barney/Robin shipper. There was never a problem in their relationship, apparently, but they then break up because they have an "expiration date" and ultimately want different things in life. Except that Ted is not her soulmate. The only times when Robin wants Ted are the times where (1) she can't have him because he's either trying to move on or (2) the times where it's convenient, for example when they become roommates again and they solve their disputes again. Around that time, we see perfectly that Ted had moved on and that the person getting hurt was Barney. It's one thing to see Ted and Robin in the finale as two people picking up where they had left off after they dated. But this is not the case. 

In season 7, we have the exchange that should have put an end to any and all TedxRobin drama, and that completely invalidates whatever the writers wrote after that about the two of them: Ted declares his love - "I think you know how you feel about me now. I don't think time's gonna change that. Just tell me: do you love me?" To which she answers "No". And Ted also says later to Marshall, that he's "happy because he can finally move on". 

What a load of crap. 

Getting over someone is hard, believe me, I would know. And, oftentimes, it doesn't happen until we find someone else to love (and from the moment he meets Tracy, there is no one else for Ted). But by giving Ted feelings for Robin after this moment, it takes away from the beauty of it- because it's one of the most heartbreaking feelings in the world when you declare your love to someone and they don't love you back. Ted and Robin were both honest at that moment, and it was the last genuinely good exchange between them. After that, during season 8 they try to show us Ted trying to get over her (and failing) and in season 9 Ted getting over her completely. This is also weirdly paced because at the beginning of s8 both are in happy relationships with other people and there's no jealousy (which is good, because at least they weren't toxic) and they seem just friends (when Robin leaves Nick to go see him in the middle of the night, she implies that she would do it for any of her friends), but after Ted breaks up with Veronica because of Robin everything is weirdly coated in this sort of tension between the two: first Ted loves her, but she doesn't, so when he helps her by taking her to Barney's proposal ("which means my best bro in the world has given me his blessing"). 

And, by the way, every time they try to paint Ted as the guy that comes through for Robin after this moment, they dumb down Barney's character. And still fail to make Ted a better guy than him (see: the carousel in Central Park). 

Yes, Robin and Ted have some chemistry, but it is nothing compared to what Robin and Barney have. Every time Robin is jealous of Barney, it doesn't seem like a stupid whim, just because some other child is playing with her toys (except, perhaps, during The Robin). Robin and Barney's relationship would need a whole other post, and the next time I rewatch the series I will write down all the things that make them perfect for each other, but, to me, the biggest difference between the two relationships is this: in season 6, when she's not dating either one of them, Ted accuses Robin of never making him feel needed while they were together, whereas Barney praises her for it. Those are elective affinities: that's what Barney and Robin have, and what Tracy and Ted have. 

Barney and Robin have more or less the same arc: they both get over their fear of commitment and they do that with each other. Time and time again, we are told that if they're ever going to settle down, it would only be with the other. The first time they break up is honestly so stupid, and even when they are broken up, they are the best of friends, which also makes Robin's behaviour in the finale look so stupid. The way the two of them fit together is unparalleled, both in a romantic and a platonic way. 

Think about it: Robin makes Barney a better man, while she makes Ted a worse one. 

Also, the whole point that there are different seasons in life for everything gets thrown out the window: apparently, Ted and Robin (that were a couple that ultimately worked in their young twenties) are the same people in their forties.

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that the two final episodes butcher Robin's arc as well: episode 23 starts with Lily saying "I want this girl to be in our lives" and we know Robin never made other friends outside of the gang, because she didn't need to, and now she walks away from everything because of fucking Ted?? This is saying "hey, Robin was only in the group for Ted, who brought her in, and now she leaves because he's not her puppy anymore". Robin was the one that was eternally indecisive between Ted and Barney and you're telling me that three years and many many life experiences later, she's still not sure? 

The point of her story is learning how to get over her fear of commitment, learning how to be there for her friends (there's an entire episode dedicated to that, and it's the one where Lily's pregnant and we meet Robin's ex-best friend in Canada), and how to balance her job and her life. Also, the way her character is treated is un-feminist and un-progressive: she becomes Ted's consolation prize. She is passive throughout s9. She cannot, ultimately, win the modern-day struggle most women have and balance out career and love life, so her true life, her "happy chapter" begins after she has already accomplished everything she wanted to and she's free for Ted. She doesn't even go back to him, she just the prize the main character wanted for all his life and only got in the end because his wife died (ONE SCENE, people, ONE SCENE!). Also, this makes Tracy the "broodmare" that gives him the kids he wanted, and his "happy family" experience before he goes to be with his one true love. 

The mother

This. This makes me so mad. One whole season spent on building up Tracy's character, just for it to go to waste. It would have been so easy to screw her up, but she is hands down the best thing about s9. She's the perfect woman for Ted and the episode shot through her perspective is the sweetest. By the end, I liked her more than Robin and Lily. She was the perfect addition to their group, she fit together with them in a perfect way, and they show us the biggest moment of her and Ted's life... for what? To have her die in a few sentences? And I don't care if they shot a funeral scene, I don't care if the finale was supposed to be 40 minutes long, because, in the end, it wasn't. The scene where Ted meets her is the second most beautiful one (after Barney's proposal to Robin) and the climax of the whole show, but they ruin her... and for what? The chemistry Ted has with her, he has with no one. The joy she brings him, the way she understands him, is unlike any other. I am sure that one of the reasons they killed her off was the shock value and I hate it. 

I cannot stress this enough: Tracy makes Ted a better person. When he's with Robin, Ted is "the nice guy" in the most selfish and narcissistic version of the trope. When he's with Tracy, love comes easy to Ted. Also, the scenes between the two of them are arguably the best Ted scenes of the show.

The kids' reactions (ugh)

It's not really what they say- it's the way they say it. The end of HIMYM was not supposed to be funny, even though the show is a sitcom. It was supposed to be bittersweet and beautiful, because it's the end of an era, and the writers must have known that. So, Ted finishes telling his story, reveals to the audience that their now-beloved Tracy is dead, and the reaction is: "No, ahah, you totally have the hots for Aunt Robin" (their words, not mine). Like, what the actual fuck? I cringed when Penny said that. It's tasteless and not fun at all. Even if it has been six years... It's still your fucking mum, show a little bit of sadness at the thought of her. 

The reason the show ended this way

What makes me especially mad is that I know for a fact that the reason they went with this ending is that it was the original one, always intended for the show, from season 2 onwards. And, if you watch it right after s2, it makes sense. But if you consider the eight years that passed and the massive character development, then no, it's not the best possible one. So many things hadn't been decided yet back in s2, especially about Barney, Ted, and Robin, and I hate that they didn't dare to scrap their work. This ending probably had sentimental meaning to the writers, but authors have to do what's best for their characters, not themselves. It's like with GoT, in a way: I think that the authors were all too aware of the impact of HIMYM and didn't believe that their finale would live up to the expectations... which compelled them to make the worst decision possible?? Every single character is OOC during the episode. Oh, and Marshall and Lily moving in the last episode is a ripoff from Friends (or maybe a tribute? Idk). Anyway, I believe that the authors were too attached to their sentimental version of "what should have been" and didn't give the characters the endings they truly deserved.

"Life works this way" // "Life only moves forward"

Some people say that the show is realistic because that's how life works. But I call super-BS on that. That might be true, and yes, people do get sick and die (Max, Marshall's dad...) and life does go on. But then, you don't frame it the way they did. It's just bad storytelling if you do it like that. And the problem is not the structure of season 9, because the characters develop in that season. The problem isn't even the mother's death. The problem is Ted ending up with Robin because that's not life moving forward for him, that's him, doing the same thing he did in 2005, 25 (twenty-fucking-five) years before! 

In conclusion, this finale is incoherent and inconclusive, and not satisfying at all. The only character that gets a good ending is Marshall: why is that? What makes his ending great? It's the fact that his character arc is respected and he finally gets what he's been working towards for more than ten years.

[the-126-family]

Thanks for tagging me, @lonestar-s5countdown, and thank you for your wonderful questions as always!

(1) Which 911 Lone Star season finale is your favorite?

I think I would have to say the season 1 finale and the season 3 finale. The season 1 finale wrapped up everyone's arcs really nicely and ended on a positive note for everyone, which I loved. The season 3 finale ends with Owen getting closure from the trauma he endured on 9/11, and TK and Carlos getting engaged, which was such an exciting and sweet moment.

(2) What was your favorite moment from the season 4 finale?

The wedding! It was so beautifully done. Both TK and Carlos's vows were so sweet and I love the deleted scenes where they get pep talks from their parents. The deleted scene where they cut the cake is actually my favorite scene of the entire series, because they are just so, so happy.

(3) Are there any storylines that you would like to see brought back for a more satisfying conclusion?

I'm interested in seeing where the Jonah storyline is going and how that gets resolved! I also want to find out who killed Gabriel and get closure about that.

(4) Pick one character and tell us where you hope to see them at the end of season 5.

All I really want for the characters I love so much is for them to just end the show happy. And alive. Happy and alive.

(5) What is one thing you really want to see before the show ends?

I want to see Buttercup again! And I also want to see that girl and her terrible boyfriend who were in at least 3 of the seasons, because they always made me laugh (he was the one who locked himself in the gun safe, abandoned her when he thought he saw aliens, and was trapped in the port-a-potty at the fair). Maybe we'll see that she finally broke up with him for good, haha.

I'm tagging @thisbuildinghasfeelings, @paperstorm, @ladytessa74, @captain-gillian, @corsage, and anyone else who wants to participate!

This week we have some Endings-themed questions for our tag game!

(1) Which 911 Lone Star season finale is your favorite?

(2) What was your favorite moment from the season 4 finale?

(3) Are there any storylines that you would like to see brought back for a more satisfying conclusion?

(4) Pick one character and tell us where you hope to see them at the end of season 5.

(5) What is one thing you really want to see before the show ends?

Answer the questions and tag some more people to play! Make sure to tag @lonestar-s5countdown so we don’t miss your answers!

Open tag, but also tagging:

@lemonlyman-dotcom @strandnreyes @she-walked-away @ladytessa74 @herefortarlos

@thisbuildinghasfeelings @paperstorm @heartstringsduet @alrightbuckaroo @happilylovingchaos

@fifthrideroftheapocalypse @literateowl @birdclowns @nancys-braids @emsprovisions

@tellmegoodbye @ironheartwriter @bonheur-cafe @tkslittlesway @theghostofashton

@goldenskykaysani @toomanycupsoftea @carlos-in-glasses @guardian-angle22 @reyesstrand

@welcometololaland @rmd-writes @lightningboltreader @tinyluminaryzombie @sugdenlovesdingle

@shes-an-oddbird @decafdino @butchreyes @corsage @the-126-family

[hezuart]

That anaversary aizen looks absolutely fabulous, he looks like a figure skater xd.

I heard along time ago the last arc of the anime was being animated finally bc they pulled a 90s sailor moon were the last season was not either animated or dubbed untill decades later.

I recall near the end of the current 366 episodes there was an episode were the creapy demon ppl woke up in hell and we're all bitter, and there was the other guy who was like, iM cOmEiNg FoR u IChIgO, but then is never mentioned again after and I'm like,why? Why is lt there just plopted randomly into a different arc that seams unrelated.

And locking aizen up underground seems ok, but It deff won't hold, and he will. Escape, and he will kill, you either need that one spell from star, dubbed, the darkest spell of moon the undaunted, a powerfull dark spell that killed immortal beings, that came from best character, eclipsa, the queen of darkness.

We need that.

Or stick him I'm crystal like eclipsa was in star. Is there no one who could trap him in ice or crystal for all eternity.

How about throw him into the centre of a volcano trapped and caged , forverr being killed by heat?

I assume there's space travel, send I'm into a black whole, were a black whole don't fuckin care if your immortal or fat, you will die

:3

Yes, I love anniversary Aizen. His original octopus-butterfly hollow design was ugly so I'm glad he's back to being the fashion icon he is.

Locking Aizen up underground once is one thing, doing it twice after saying he got more powerful by just sitting there, and he escaped to battle the Quincy Soul King God... is another. I think he should have escaped at the end of the Quincy arc. That is the only feasibility.

I heard the anime is coming back for the Quincy arc as well, but because of COVID its probably going to be delayed. (I'm not gonna watch it until the Rain section of the arc then I'm dipping out. I'm only here for Zangetsu)

and funny that you mention that hell scene in the manga :)

-> spoilers for the new BLEACH 73 page anniversary chapter / thoughts/critique on it

So hey you had a premonition! Syazel .... returned? And his hole is outside of his body??? for some reason???

(I didn't understand the explanation or why / how that happens and what that means for the hollow)

And my friend and I were laughing because out of ALL the things. Kubo could do in this anniversary. He gave Syazel his dick back after going to hell. That is iconic. (that's where his hole was located, and now that its not on his body ... well...) This is the funniest thing Kubo has EVER pulled. Kudos to you, sir.

The entire internet is freaking out over Ukitake being in hell. Honestly Kubo has done far worse, and we've established that Soul Society is a corrupt system that hasn't changed, so I'm not surprised he would pull something like this.

At the same time, Kubo 1. cheated his audience. 2. continues to prove me right that he cannot bring himself to kill his characters

1. Hollows who have commit murder in their human life are sent to hell. Syazel and Aaorniero are two of these hollows, and yet, when they are killed, there is NO gates of hell scene. We see them there later in the hell chapter (which was more of a promotion for the fourth movie and I didn't believe it would hold any merit)

But the same goes for Ukitake. We never see the gates of hell take him. What, was hell late? Did hell's gates get lost like an uber before picking him up? It's bull. Withholding such vital information from your audience, not showing the gates of hell when they should pick up this soul IMMEDIATELY is ... I mean its a lie. Kubo lied to his audience.

2. Now we are told powerful shinigami are sent to hell when they die. First of all that sounds like a security threat. Wouldn't shinigami want revenge for that? Or attempt to escape? Why would they still hold loyalty after being sent to a prison of eternal suffering?

Also "Yhwach and Aizen" were the only ones keeping Hell's gates closed is way too convenient and doesn't really make any sense. I feel like Aizen should have deliberately gone to hell to retrieve powerful shinigami / hollows for his army instead of keeping it /closed/.

This is definitely a Kubo-doesn't-know-what-he's-doing-and-is -making- stuff-up-as-he-goes, but it might have a pinch of merit because of previous plot lines.... but either way, there's some big plot holes here, but again, its Kubo, so I expected nothing less.

Again, he can't kill off his characters. He introduced zombification, he introduced immortality through the hougyoku, he has Orihime and Hachigen's reversal / rejection abilities. He brought back Luppi, friggen.... a character who's entire upper half of his body was incinerated. Like.... come on. No. He's dead, you can't bring him back like that. That's a cop out and just weird. You're taking away consequences and grief.

(Also Yamamoto and Unohana deserve to be in hell far over Ukitake, they've done some fcked up stuff in their pasts unlike him)

Also Kubo's favorite character is Mayuri, which.... you're allowed to have a favorite problematic character. But Keeping said character alive and bared from the consequences of abusing his daughter, murdering innocents, and experimenting on your own squad members? Nah. Nope. Kill him, Kubo. Kill this dude.

(his weird attachment to Mayuri is probably why he keeps bringing Syazel back, since Syazel is Mayuri 2.0, but Syazel is the bad guy who does face consequences for his actions while Mayuri is not)

~

Also, I'm certain Kazui and Orihime are going to be THRILLED that their precious husband/dad is going to hell when he dies :)

(I just... Rukia teased Ichigo about leaving Orihime at home. She teased him about having a house wife who he leaves all the chores to. Orihime had two panels. She checks on her son who promised he would be at home and sleep. Kazui fcking breaks his promise like it never mattered to him and JUMPS out the window after pretending to sleep in front of his mother. ... An 8 year old... alone... in the middle of the night.)

Orihime is abandoned. She is not invited to SS, she is not informed of what is going on, her son leaves her.... I...

Orihime is a side character. She doesn't matter anymore. She hasn't mattered for a long, long time.

A part of me is glad she had little screen time, since she tends to waste it, but another part of me is embroiled with rage.

I've even see people try to defend this. "Orihime and Ichigo can't be together ALL the time, that's an unhealthy relationship!" and I'm like guys... that's not the point. The point is Orihime is not part of Ichigo's other life. Any shinigami stuff from now on is none of her business. She's going to stay at home while Kazui and Ichigo go off and save the world. Ichigo is going to be fighting by Rukia and Renji while Orihime watches from the sidelines, or worse, doesn't even know what is going on with her husband and son. Orihime is going to be uninformed and abandoned, because she has not proven she is capable of fighting by their sides(go on, @ me. I will fight this. She's a failure.), and also because she prefers a human life over a dead one. Which is ironic, because she married a dead man. Ichigo is a shinigami, and he will be one forever. god forbid she ever meets his Zanpaktou. She would tremble in fear at the monsters her husband harbors in his soul, especially when she realizes they don't care about her and would rather see her dead. (Zangetsu would absolutely kill Orihime. Not sure about Kazui, but Orihime has not accepted Zangetsu, she does not like either of them, and the feeling is assuredly mutual.) frick now I want to make a comic about this

Also still frustrated over Zangetsu's shikai / bankai regression. Kubo once again lied to his audience. Ichigo has no bankai. How ridiculous is that? The main character of BLEACH doesn't have a bankai. Insulting.

(RIP to Chad. He doesn't exist anymore. He's just gone. No mention, no cameo. Gone.)

Kazui is a demon child. That character from the novels? Hikone? They're the same character. Literally same personality, same power level. Its worse because Kazui is a liar. He constantly goes behind his parents' backs. He can summon creepy fish and creepy eyeballs and open portals like is ANYONE aware of this? How has SS not kidnapped Ichigo's son and experimented on him / locked away his powers yet? All substitute shinigami require a reiatsu controlling / spy badge to keep them in line. Where is Kazui's? Or is he just a weird fullbringer?

I was worried Kubo was gonna try and pull a knock off Boruto but luckily he kept the focus on Ichigo and the others. But that being said, Ichika and Kazui are now just... sort of there? Kazui was kinda just.... having his own adventure that doesn't matter to the plot at hand, and Ichika had some nice characterization at first but she just hid behind her dad the whole time.

I have a feeling Kazui is gonna step in at the last minute or do some major behind the scenes thing that indirectly interferes with the main plot so no one will realize how powerful and dangerous he actually is. Its sad because Ichika is the superior character in personality and likability, but she clearly is not going to have a bigger part in this.

Ichigo having a normal life after everything still feels extremely boring and uncomfortable to me. Everyone's like 'I'm still bLEACH!" but.... BLEACH just... doesn't feel like BLEACH anymore. It hasn't for a while now.

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There's two new shinigami characters. Didn't care for the girl, but the Sign Language kid who talks to animals is adorable ... however... he just reminds me of Chad, and I just... it hurts knowing Chad has essentially been deleted. Chad and Orihime are officially benched. They have chosen the human world, and Orihime has given Ichigo his spawn so she has no more use/purpose to him anymore... ////sigh

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Also. This is claimed to be a new "arc". So is the BLEACH manga coming back? What is happening. I thought Kubo was tired and didn't want to do BLEACH anymore. I thought Shounen Jump cut him off. People made so many excuses for Kubo and why the past two arcs have been so badly written the past 6 years and now almost everything they've attempted to defend him with has been revoked.

BLEACH is going to continue to screw up its plot lines and characters, so Its probably best for it to stay dead but I've seen a lot of Kubo stans drooling over this content, they're desperate for BLEACH's return, but its already given out all its possible revelations. There's really nothing else to top here. It's just going to make things up as it goes along ,and I'm not really here for half-assed writing like that, especially since the damage of rushing the previous manga has already been done. Kubo and Shounen Jump are riding off a money nostalgia. None of this was planned.

Honestly though.... overall feeling of this chapter, not as bad as it could have been.

Syazel stole the spotlight, and he's my friend's favorite character, so that's all that really matters.